World urges restraint as India, Pakistan trade blows over Kashmir

ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI, (Reuters) - India and Pakistan both said they shot down each other’s fighter jets yesterday, with Pakistan capturing an Indian pilot a day after Indian warplanes struck inside Pakistan for the first time since a 1971 war, prompting world powers to urge restraint.

Both countries have ordered air strikes over the last two days, the first time in history that two nucleararmed powers have done so, while ground forces have exchanged fire in more than a dozen locations.

Tensions have been running high since at least 40 Indian paramilitary police died in a Feb. 14 suicide car bombing by Pakistan-based militants in Indian-controlled Kashmir, but the risk of conflict rose dramatically on Tuesday when India launched an air strike on what it said was a militant training base.

A senior Indian government source said 300 militants were killed in Tuesday’s strike. Pakistan says no one died.

The White House condemned the intensifying conflict and urged “both sides to take immediate steps to deescalate the situation.”

“The potential risks associated with further military action by either side are unacceptably high for both countries, their neighbors and the international community,” a National Security Council official said on condition of anonymity.

The Pentagon added to U.S. pressure for restraint by the foes, issuing a statement that said Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan is focused “on de-escalating tensions and urging both of the nations to avoid further military action.”

Pakistan’s envoy to the United States, Asad Majeed Khan, said Islamabad would like to see the Trump administration play a more active role in easing the crisis.

“We would certainly like to have more, and would certainly like to see more active involvement of the United States,” he told reporters.

At the same time, he said the lack of U. S. condemnation of India’s strike on Pakistan is “construed and understood as an endorsement of the Indian position, and that is what emboldened them even more.”

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan called for talks with India and hoped both sides could de-escalate.

“History tells us that wars are full of miscalculation. My question is that, given the weapons we have, can we afford miscalculation,” Khan said during a brief televised broadcast to the nation. “We should sit down and talk.”

The Pakistan government’s official Twitter account released a video of a man it claimed was an Indian pilot who had been shot down.

The man, whom Pakistan has named as Wing Commander Abhi Nandan and whose face was bloodied and blindfolded, gives his name and service number before telling a man questioning him: “I’m sorry sir, that’s all I’m supposed to tell you.”

India’s foreign ministry demanded the pilot’s immediate release and said his treatment was a “vulgar display of an injured personnel of the Indian Air Force in violation of all norms of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Convention” India has not yet named the pilot.

In a second video circulating on social media, a screenshot of which was shared by the same Pakistan government account, the pilot was seen sipping tea while praising his treatment by the Pakistani military.

Reuters could not independently verify the second video’s authenticity. Pakistan and India have fought three wars since independence from British colonial rule in 1947, two over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, and went to the brink of a fourth in 2002 after a Pakistani militant attack on India’s parliament.

The latest escalation marks a sudden deterioration in relations between the two countries, both of which claim Kashmir in full, but only rule in part.

As recently as November, Pakistan’s Khan spoke of “mending ties” with India.

The conflict also comes at a critical time for Indian Prime Minster Narendra Modi, who faces a general election in a matter of months.

Modi’s decision to order air strikes could benefit him politically, according to analysts and pollsters, but he was accused on Wednesday by opposition parties of capitalising on conflict.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi criticised the “blatant politicisation of the sacrifices made by our armed forces,” in a joint statement by 21 opposition parties, the first time they have broken ranks with the government over the issue.

U. S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke separately with the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan and urged them to avoid “further military activity” following Tuesday’s air strike.

“I expressed to both ministers that we encourage India and Pakistan to exercise restraint, and avoid escalation at any cost,” Pompeo said in a statement on Wednesday.